Lying Eyes
by iwilltry-tocarryon
Summary: AU one-shot based off a tumblr sentence prompt, that could potentially have one more chapter
1. Chapter 1

Dragging his feet, shuffling across the carpeted floor of Rachel Matheson's house, Bass was groaning internally to himself even before he showed up to this lame barbeque dinner thingy. Already preoccupied with the thought of Charlie being there, he went from excited to pissed in 0.01 seconds when Miles informed him that she was bringing along her new boyfriend to meet the family. Miles went on and on about how they had been dating for a few weeks, which seemed pretty convenient to Bass upon remembering that it had been exactly 24 days since he told Charlie he didn't want to tell Miles or anyone about their 'relationship' yet. It started out as just a one-time fling…until it wasn't anymore. Their not so casual, secret relationship went on for two whole months before Charlie even started bringing Miles and everyone else into the equation.

That night was also the same night he could remember how the look on Charlie's face made his stomach churn in disgust. He was disgusted with himself for even saying it, but he just wasn't ready to lose Miles, and he feared that would be the outcome no matter how much Charlie insisted that it wouldn't come down to an ultimatum.

She knew Miles, he would give her that, but Bass knew him better, and there was no arguing that. Hell, it was for that reason alone that Rachel often got jealous of their friendship in the first place. Miles was always more willing to share things with Bass, but it took a long time for him to be able to share a quarter of it with Rachel. It wasn't anything personal; it was just Bass had been there with him when most of the bad shit went down. No one could blame Miles, but that didn't mean Rachel liked it.

Nevertheless, even with the prospect of Charlie and her new lover showing up, Bass agreed to go, though he didn't know why. That was to say, he wouldn't admit out loud the reason, he knew it in his mind alright. He wanted to see Charlie and this so called new boyfriend and make sure he was good enough for her, but Bass would never think anyone worthy of _his _Charlotte.

"Fuck," running a nervous hand through his hair, he pulled at the loose strands in order to get a grip on himself. He had to stop thinking about her like that when it was his fault in the first place they weren't together, and she wasn't his.

Smiling politely at Rachel, frantically running around the kitchen, he proceeded to the back door, sliding it closed behind him as he sought out that familiar face. He frowned thinking she wasn't going to show up at all, but lifted the corner of his mouth into a grin when he felt a shove from behind, "move it dickhead, I have a plate of chicken in my hand that ain't going to cook itself."

Chuckling at Miles' words, he took the other plate out of his hands and walked beside him towards the grill, taking them both when Miles uncovered it and started a fire.

Miles always dubbed himself the king of the grill…regardless of the fact that one time he got so distracted he let everything burn until it disintegrated, and the time he got so drunk he tripped and caught himself by placing his hand on the still very scalding hot grill. He had to be taken to the hospital that evening for burn treatment and no one got to eat.

But he was definitely the king of the grill; Bass rolled his eyes as he thought about those incidents.

Turning upon hearing the sound of the sliding glass door, Bass' retort fell silent upon his lips as he took in Charlie and all of her glory. She was perfection anytime he saw her, but today she looked particularly beautiful with her luxurious long locks hanging loosely by her side, tight fitting jeans that looked custom fitted for her body, and a flowing white tank top showcasing her glorious curves. He was a goner.

So distracted by her beauty, Bass didn't even notice the guy standing next to her. Muscular and buff, he had the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going on, but combined with that arrogant smirk plastered on his face made Bass question what Charlie would see in someone like him. She wasn't much on arrogance, and that guy screamed conceited, though Bass was probably just biased.

A smile spread across her face when her eyes met Miles' as he gave a small wave. They made their way over to where he was standing as Miles' whispered beside Bass, "what a smug dick, I think I hate him already."

Nodding, Bass' jaw clenched looking at their joined hands, "me too brother, me too."

Curiously Miles was about to ask what was up with him when Charlie approached and threw her arms around his neck, "hey kid, it's good to see you."

Laughing, she pulled back to look at him, "you too uncle Miles," glancing over in his direction, Charlie offered Bass a small smile, "you too Bass, it's nice you could come."

Her words sounded forced, rehearsed, even so he smiled a small smile of his own, choosing not to respond.

Charlie focused her attention back on the guy to her right, "Miles you've heard about Jason, Jason this is my uncle Miles, and his best friend Sebastian," emphasizing the word 'best friend,' Bass knew what she was getting at and it hurt.

Not noticing, Miles stuck his hand out to firmly, almost roughly grab Jason's hand, "nice to meet you, Charlie's told me a lot about you."

"All good things I hope?" Jason laughed as he shook Bass' hand as well, who still didn't say anything.

Narrowing his eyes at Jason, Miles' cocked his eyebrow, "are there bad things that should've been told to me?"

Charlie rolled her eyes at Miles' attempt to assert himself as an over protective father figure, "it was a joke Miles, laugh a little."

"I was just kidding too," but they all knew that he was far from joking. He always got over protective when it came to Charlie, "Jason you can help me with the grill, Bass can you go inside and get the potatoes?"

Bass nodded, "sure thing brother," cringing as he walked past Charlie, he heard her say she was going to help her mother in the kitchen as she leaned down to kiss Jason. He had to get a handle on himself green was not his color.

Allowing time to cool off, he stood in the pantry, door shut, as he flipped the light on looking for potatoes. Running a hand through his hair, he let out a long, deep, calming breath that caught in his throat when he heard the door open behind him.

There she was, she always picked the worst times to show up, "sorry I just had to get corn for mom."

After standing there perplexed, Bass realized she was pointing to the cans behind him, asking for them. He turned around, and went to reach them to her but not before commenting, "so Jason seems like a nice guy."

Charlie chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest, "from the whole two minutes you met him and said nothing to him?"

Bass' eyes narrowed, "actually Miles told me a little about him a few days ago."

A smug expression worked its way on Bass' face until Charlie raised her eyebrow in challenge, "oh yeah…and what did he tell you?"

Racking his brain, Bass came up empty. He wasn't lying when he said Miles told him stuff about the guy, he just hadn't been listening, because he didn't rightly give a shit.

Complacently, Charlie chuckled, "that's what I thought so why don't you say…whatever it is that's really on your mind so we can go back to ignoring each other and not talking."

**"I hope one day you're as happy as you're pretending to be," **Bass snapped his mouth closed in regret as soon as the words left his lips. That was a stupid, idiotic thing to say to her, and he knew that she wasn't going to just go with it.

Fury brewed inside of her as she pointed an accusatory finger at him, "you don't get to do this. You don't get to be anger, or jealous, or whatever it is you are right now. You're the one who said you didn't want to tell Miles and I didn't want to lie anymore."

Bass snorted, "Yeah well you didn't seem too concerned with lying the first two months we were shacking up together." Wincing at his choice of words, Bass was blatantly aware that he was digging his own grave.

"Shacking up? That's really how you want to phrase it? My god," she laughed bitterly, "you're much more of a jackass than I originally thought. You can go to hell Bass. It's not that I wasn't 'too concerned,' as you say, it was the fact that I wanted to be able to tell people you were my boyfriend, but I don't know what I was thinking…clearly I wasn't because I should've seen it coming."

Setting aside the forgotten cans of corn, he crossed his arms over his chest, furrowing his brows, "what's that supposed to mean? Seen what coming?"

"Miles means more to you than anyone else, but definitely more than I do, which I can't blame you for because you've known him longer and he's your family. I guess I just figured that if I was willing to put everything on the line for you, then you'd at least be willing to do the same, but then again you meant more to me."

"Don't tell me what I feel Charlotte, there's no way you could possibly know that you care more about me than I do you," he huffed at her self-confident manner, like she knew him, like he was an open book. It frustrated Bass because he did care for her, more than she ever even knew.

She shook her head, the strands of hair behind her ears drifting to the side of her face, "that's not what I meant. I meant that I care more about you than I do Miles and his feelings."

If Bass had been drinking, at this point, he would've spit it out. He almost wanted to wash out his ears to make sure he was hearing her correctly when she dropped that bomb. She was telling him that he meant more to her than Miles, her favorite uncle and the one man who had always favored Charlie and treated her like a daughter. Bass didn't think he was hearing her correctly, there was no way, "Excuse me, but, what?"

Shrugging her shoulders, she sighed, "beats the hell out of me too, but I do. I realized that night when I wanted to tell Miles, and I had already thought of a million scenarios and ways it could go, but at the end of it the only consistent thought I had was that I didn't give a damn.

"I didn't give a damn if he cared, if he liked it, if he accepted it, none of those things mattered to me in that moment because I couldn't shake the happiness I was feeling…" she drifted off reflecting on those memories while Bass tried, unsuccessfully, to keep it together after her declaration. She didn't outright say she loved him, but she might as well have in his eyes.

Shaking her head, she looked back at Bass, who still hadn't uttered a response, "but that's in the past so there's no use rehashing it. I respected your decision and I took your advice to move on and find happiness somewhere else. The least you could do is respect my decision as well, Jason isn't a bad guy."

Bass scoffed, not because he didn't think Jason was a good guy, on the contrary he didn't mind him as a person. His scoff was in reference to her finding happiness, he was calling bullshit on the lie she was trying to sell, "you can lie to me all you want Charlie, but you can't lie to yourself."

She didn't have to ask him what he meant by that because it was apparent. Not only could she read him like a book, he could her as well. All it took was one look at their interaction to know that Charlie hadn't found this so called 'happiness'…not yet at least, and maybe she would find it eventually, but it would be forced. Things that are forced together could work for awhile, but sooner or later pressure will build up and cause a split. You can't force oil and water together permanently anymore than you could force two people not meant for each other.

"Are you happy Charlie?"

He had no idea why he was even asking that question when it was obvious in her silence that she wasn't. Charlie was passionate and if she knew she was right, she couldn't be kept silent. She would use her very last breath defending what she believed in her heart to be right. Silence really did speak louder than words, for Charlie anyway.

After a few minutes she sighed, shaking her head slightly, "not in the same way…but I'm trying."

The solemn, sorrow filled way she said it made Bass' heart hurt. He knew that night he was causing her pain, but he thought, stupidly, that it would be in her best interest.

Standing there in front of her, 24 days later, he knew he was wrong. She was still hurting, and it was all his fault. How could he have been so stupid? He put a halt to their relationship because he wanted to avoid hurting her and breaking her heart, but all that seemed to do was speed up the process. If he was being honest with himself, he also couldn't bear the thought of losing Miles, and he knew Miles would be beyond pissed when shit hit the fan. Watching the girl he loved, pouring her heart out to him and confessing that she would've given up anything to be with him, and even cared more about his feelings than Miles,' was enough to make Bass throw caution to the wind.

Arm shooting out from its place at his side, he pulled her in close to his chest, hard, and crushed his lips against hers in a passionate kiss. Expecting her to push him away or be pissed that he was playing hot and cold with her, he was downright giddy when she responded immediately, opening her mouth for his tongue to probe while his hands settled on her perfectly round ass.

Gripping her ass in his hands, he molded their bodies closer together until they might as well have been one body.

Not being able to contain her sounds any longer, Charlie let out of a loud moan, swallowed up by his urgent kisses. Her hands delved into his unruly, curly locks, as she stretched on her toes to give him more access to her mouth.

Rolling her hips up to meet his, they were all but dry humping in the pantry while her family was just outside, along with her new boyfriend. Charlie's mind was so hazy at this point; she couldn't even remember her own name, let alone anything else.

A throat clearing sent her instincts into overdrive as she ripped her mouth away from Bass' to come face to face with a pissed off and confused Miles, "Bass I seem to recall asking you to get the potatoes…call me crazy, but I thought it was self explanatory that they would be in the pantry, not down my 22 year old niece's throat."


	2. Chapter 2

"Well you know what they say…what you're looking for is usually in the last place you'd expect," Bass tried to chuckle, but all that came out was a forced, nervous laugh.

Miles stared at him in awe, "are you trying to be funny right now? Because now's not the time to be cute Bass, now's the time to tell me what the hell is going on?"

"I can't help being cute," Bass started but quickly cleared his throat when Miles was not amused with his attempts at lightening the mood, "listen it isn't exactly as it looks—"

Miles bitterly laughed, "are you really going with that line? Bass, I may as well have invented that line. Skip to the part where you tell me why the hell I caught you two, in a fucking closet, about to…God, I'm not even going to finish that statement."

"Miles it wasn't going to go that far this time—"

"This time…are you, are you telling me that it's went that far previously?"

Miles was fuming. If he had been in one of those old cartoons, smoke would've been shooting out of his ears, and steam rolling off his body. He advanced on Bass before he could utter a response.

Charlie, who had been silent during the conversation, stepped forward to push them apart with her hands. When that didn't work, she gave Miles a hard shove, pushing him and her out of the pantry, locking Bass in there.

"Miles chill out, acting irrationally isn't going to help anything," she calmly tried to state as she could feel Bass beating on the door behind her. The outside of the house had been renovated, but a lot of the antiquity of the house Rachel wanted to preserve, like the ability to lock doors from the outside, requiring a key to unlock.

Miles knew that, he had gotten locked in their closets many times while drunk and had to wait, pitifully, until someone found him.

That fact however did not stop him, "calm…you want me to be calm? Charlie I can't even talk to you right now after what I just saw, so do me a favor and step out of the way so I can beat the shit out of my ex-best friend."

Rolling her eyes, Charlie held her ground, "you know the door is locked so you might as well begin by talking to me."

"Doesn't mean I can't tear the door off the hinges," he muttered.

"Oh yeah, Incredible Hulk, and then face mom's wrath when she realizes you broke her door?"

She knew she had him there from the look on his face. He was grasping at straws to come up with a rebuttal, "I think she'd be more concerned with her 22 year old daughter being groped by an almost 50 year old."

Charlie snorted in disbelief, "Yeah, keep telling yourself, we both know Rachel Matheson's first concern would be with her busted door."

It wasn't a dig at Rachel it was just the truth. She focused on concrete things rather than seeing the big picture. She most definitely would've been in a tizzy about her door before anything else got through her thick skull.

"Charlie, just let me out so we can get this over with," she heard Bass complaining from the other side of the door.

Shaking her head, she realized he couldn't hear her, "no can do, if you two are going to act like children I'm going to treat you like children. You can both be put in time out to cool down."

Miles held up a hand, "woah woah woah, when did this turn into you scolding me. I'm the adult here."

When he realized he wasn't going to be able to get to Bass, he rounded on her, "Charlie what the hell were you thinking? Bass…really? What about Jason? I mean he's a tool and I hate him, but still. How long has this been going on?"

Taking a deep breath, Charlie counted up the time in her head, "about 3 and a half months or so."

With that Miles blew up, "3 goddamn months. Are you fucking kidding me?"

Charlie flinched back, feeling the backlash of his anger. Bass pounded a fist on the door, he didn't want Charlie to have to deal with Miles' anger alone, especially when it took two to tango and he was just as guilty.

Bitterly Charlie started laughing, to which Miles didn't know how to respond, "Wow, Bass was right in not wanting to tell you."

"That's not helping my case Charlie," Bass mumbled.

Ignoring him she continued, her fierce eyes piercing into Miles', "I wanted to tell you because I figured you would be—"

"What Charlie…happy? You thought I'd be over the moon about my best friend, who is like my brother, banging my niece. The one good thing in my life."

"Stop interrupting because you're angry. I get that, but that doesn't give you a right to be an asshole about this whole thing. Do you think any of this was easy? On any of us? So to answer your question, no, I didn't think you were going to jump for joy over this, you're much too old to be jumping around, but I didn't expect you to look at me like this. Like you were disappointed in me for something that wasn't in my control."

By the end of her speech, Miles' gaze had softened when he realized he was looking at her differently. He didn't mean to come off so harsh, especially not to her.

"Old? You do realize that Bass and I are the same age," when Charlie's face remained annoyed he started again, "I'm not disappointed in you kid, Bass on the other hand—"

"Is no more to blame than I am, it takes two to tango, isn't that the expression?"

Miles grimaced at her choice of words as she continued, "you want to know why he didn't want to tell you? Because you mean the world to him and he was more afraid of losing you, and I don't blame him at all for that."

Sighing, Miles raked a hand through his dark tresses, "yeah probably had nothing to do with him worrying about losing you to someone younger. Take for instance his 25 year old son," Miles mumbled the last part, but it was enough for both of them to hear.

Whoop there it is, the ticking time bomb that Bass was afraid of. Bass sucked in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds. He couldn't see Charlie's reaction, but he could hear the silence and feel the confusion radiating off her body.

"What are you talking about?"

"Charlie listen to me," it wasn't Miles' voice that she heard, but rather Bass' pleading voice from the other side of the door, "just open the door and I can explain everything."

Groaning, Miles closed his eyes tightly, "ah hell Bass, you didn't even tell her? I assumed somewhere in those months you two would've found time to do something other than screw around."

"You know what they say about assuming?" Bass bit back bitterly and then huffed, "I was waiting for the right moment, which I thought would be self explanatory wasn't right now while I'm trapped inside a damn pantry."

"How the hell was I supposed to know you didn't tell her? I didn't catch something as obvious as you two…right under my nose," Miles looked over to Charlie who hadn't said anything this whole time, which was unlike her.

"How long?" Bass couldn't see her, but Miles could, and she was addressing him.

Bass tired to answer but all she did was repeat the question, "how long has he known Miles?"

With the question directly addressed to him, Bass remained silent, knowing that was the best choice at the moment. She obviously didn't want to hear anything he had to say.

"I don't know, a couple months or so I guess kid."

When he saw the pained expression on her face he stepped towards her, immediately coming to Bass' defense, "Charlie, I'm sure he had his reasons—"

He may have been pissed at his brother currently, but that didn't mean he wanted to see either of them upset. Plus he knew Bass. He had to have a damn good reason for keeping this from her.

Reaching above the doorframe, Miles cursed himself for not remembering that's where the key was. She shoved the key in his direction, not meeting his eyes, "here, you can let him out…or not. Whatever."

With that, Charlie made her exit and Bass could sense her fleeting presence. He began banging loudly on the door when Miles didn't immediately open it for him, "fuck, I know you're pissed and want to hit me. That's fine, we can do that later, I'll even let you get in a few good hits before I fight back, but right now…goddamnit Miles, just let me out of here. Let me go talk to her, please."

The way his voice broke at the end made Miles give in quickly. He could tell that Bass was genuinely upset that he made Charlie feel this way and wanted to fix things.

Unlocking the door, he grabbed Bass' forearm when he came barreling out, "you owe me."

Snatching his arm away from Miles, he called after him, "haven't I owed you all my life?"

Miles laughed as he watched Bass jog to catch up to Charlie who had just made her way out the front door.

Catching up to her quickly, he took her arm in his firm grip, tugging her backward only to be met with the most heartbreaking look he'd ever received, "I just really don't want to talk right now Bass, okay? Can you understand that?"

Bass nodded, "I do understand that, which is why I'll talk and you'll listen."

Sighing, she pulled at her arm, trying to put space between them, but that only made him tug her in closer to his chest.

"Charlie I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I was just trying to process it for myself."

"When did you find out?" She already asked Miles, but she wanted to hear it from Bass.

He sighed, running his hand through his hair, "a couple weeks after we started seeing each other."

Nodding, Charlie was trying to process all of the information she had just been bombarded with.

Bass instinctively stepped closer to her, "I swear Charlie, I didn't want you to find out this way. I didn't want it to come across like it was a dirty secret I was trying to keep from you, and I certainly didn't want to upset you or make you mad."

"I'm not mad, I was just a little confused. You don't have to tell me everything, that much is a given, but the way you panicked when Miles told me gave off the vibe that you didn't want me to know for some reason. It's not that you didn't tell me, it was that you blatantly tried to keep it from me. Either you were worried about what Miles said earlier about me leaving you for someone younger, and if that's the case you obviously didn't believe me all those times I said it was you I wanted. Or you did it for some other reason that is beyond me," exasperated, Charlie threw her hands up and shrugged her shoulders.

"It definitely couldn't have been the fact you were worried about me thinking you'd had sex with someone else, because I've known that since before we even got together. Hell, I'm pretty sure I walked in on you one time."

He face fell, "you know I'm not an irrational person, so I just don't understand why you were worried about how I'd react."

"I was scared," Bass finally blurted out, "not that you would want someone younger, but that you deserve someone your own age. I was just worried that there would be things you wanted, that I couldn't give to you."

"All I wanted was you. I didn't ask for anything else because that was enough…you are enough Bass," unconsciously she moved closer to his body, reaching out slowly for his hand.

Bass responded and closed the gap between them, caressing her cheeks as he laid his forehead against hers, breathing in her scent, "you've always had me Charlie. The reason I didn't want to tell Miles was somewhat due to his getting pissy and pouty, but really I don't give a shit. I've put up with him and his sour attitude for years, I can handle that. Plus, I care about you and your feelings more than my friendship with Miles. No, I was worried that I was asking you to give up too much just for me."

Charlie sighed, "Bass you didn't ask me to give up anything. I would have though because I wanted to and most of that stuff means nothing. You however, you do mean something."

Bass chuckled warmly, "you know, all my life I've been my own biggest enemy, always going around, self-deprecating myself. It was always Miles who told me to get my head out of my ass and I might enjoy what's around me, instead of trying to hurry the bad shit along. I should've known it would be a Matheson to show me the same thing when it came to love, I just never expected it to be you Charlotte."

Cheekily grinning up at him, she had a twinkle in her eye, "so you were anticipating this with who…Miles? My mother?"

Shuddering Bass did not laugh this time, but scrunched up his face, "gross I don't even want to think about what you're insinuating right now."

"You're the one who said it," she laughed out loud as his expression.

"What about Jason?"

"Well Jason isn't a Matheson so I don't think he would've been a contender," she innocently replied.

Rolling his eyes, he moved his hands from her cheeks to settle on her hips, "don't play coy Charlotte, you know what I mean."

"I'm pretty sure that Jason isn't my type, and I'm not his either," not wanting to elaborate on that any further she pushed herself against Bass' body and pressed her lips to his in a gentle kiss.

Lodging his hand in her hair, he broke the kiss after a few moments when he smelled smoke, "shit Miles, now we're never going to get to eat."

Charlie chuckled as she followed Bass to the backyard only to find Miles standing beside the grill, now going up in a blaze of glory, along with all of the food.

Not turning around, Miles only sighed and held up his hand, "I don't even want to hear it. Not a word from the peanut gallery about this."

Whirling around he grinned at them, then narrowed his eyes at Bass, "you're lucky I didn't barbecue your ass."

Bass threw his head back in a howling laughter, "I'm pretty sure you did one time."


End file.
